Death's Deal

Seeing Death- F2F

Chapter 4

I’m not going to deliver the gruesome details of the events that took place before Muriam’s death. In fact, I was not present for half of them. When I finally came to collect her soul, she wept of pure relief and clung to my undead body. I led her gently down the isle and when we finally arrived at her stop she thanked me and walked off to enjoy her afterlife.

As for Adien, I had something planned for that boy.

 ***

Adien strolled into the nursing home on his second day of suspension with a smile on his face and a pep in his step. He didn’t complain when he was assigned to help clean out the bed pans, he didn’t groan when he was assigned to arts and crafts duty before lunch, nor did he fret when he was given his first “elderly buddy” named Noah, an elderly old man of seventy five with a bad case of pneumonia. In fact, if you asked one of the nurses, Adien seemed overly excited to be assigned to such an elderly man.

Adien helped Noah into his blazer and a pair of old brown loafers before handing him a can and telling him they were going on a walk.

“But sunny”, Noah managed to croak out as Adien began guiding him toward the door. “I’m terribly sick. I can’t be going outside in this weather.”

Adien smiled and waved a hand to the window. “But look Noah, its bright and sunny. Surely the sun’s rays can penetrate that cool September air. I can tell you haven't been outside recently. Come on, it'll be really quick.”

Noah looked thoughtfully out of the window. It was true; he hadn’t been outside for quite some time now and the park bench where he could watch a chess game sure sounded tempting.

“Oh only for a minute”, he said with a forced laugh and allowed Adien to guide him out of the facility door and down the street.

Then around the block.

Then onto the twenty one bus.

Then to a beautiful blue and green house where they were stopping because an alleged friend of Noah’s lived there. The fact that Noah hadn’t retained most of his friends, and memory, didn’t detour him from stepping into the house, and then being hit in the back of the head with a very heavy phonebook of Virginia residents and businesses.

Sadly for Adien, he was not able to carry out his plan for the old man. Though he tried to use an object he didn’t think would cause severe injury, after the force trauma to his already sensitive body, Noah refused to wake up. His soul wrestled with his body for hours and sometimes his body won- a tiny moan would escape his crusted lips. Other times his soul won and he would cease breathing, only to be resuscitated by the will to live.

Eventually I helped end his misery and took him away from his already chilling body.

After several hours of waiting for the old man to awaken, Adien gave up hope and stuffed the man in the basement, along with the deceased body of Muriam, and went back to the nursing home. Upon his arrival, Adien’s ears picked up the panic in everyone’s voices.

“He just disappeared!” One nurse screamed into a phone. “He was with his buddy, but Adien is gone as well!”

Adien moved past the receptionist and peered into the back. When his eyes landed on Beth the world around him seemed to disappear. He moved toward her and touched her shoulder gently, hoping not to frighten her. When her moist eyes met his he pulled her into a gentle hug.

“We’ve lost two in two days”, she sobbed into his shoulder. “You haven’t seen them have you? They said you were with Noah right before he left.”

Adien pat her back sympathetically, though his mind was on other matter. He needed to get rid of the bodies…but how?

“No”, he answered after a moment. “I told him I was going for a walk and he asked to come with me but I told him no, because of him being sick and all you know. Well, I guess he up and walked out.”

“Oh Adien”, she said as she wiped tears from her eyes. “This is so horrible.”

“Indeed.” He said sadly, but inside he was smiling. His aura pulsed thicker around him, grabbing at weaker ones and even pulling souls from their beds. Gretchen, an old woman who was so sweet at heart she rivaled a saint, screamed aloud in pain as Adien’s energy pulsed throughout her, sending her already fragile heart into overdrive before making it fail.

Adien couldn’t/shouldn’t have been able to know his power had done this, but deep down inside he knew. He smiled wickedly before hugging Beth one last time and walking past her to sit in the break room and contemplate how to dispose of two bodies.

I couldn’t stand for it. Perhaps it was my own self confidence or pride. Like I’ve already told you, my aura is pure.

It’s powerful.

It’s majestic.

With my aura I bring about calm; I bring stillness. I release the pain, the guilt, the shame that traps humans to their weak bodies and I release them to something so much greater. I bring about a transformation.

In a way I’m god- or at least, that’s what I thought back then.

I needed to stop him before he got too strong. I needed to end his tyranny before it got too far out of control and killed more innocent and unready souls. I moved toward him, cloaking my aura so that he might not feel me before I was ready.

I was going to steal his breath away. Literally.

I stood over his dosing figure and finally uncloaked my power. His eyes shot open in surprise and though I had yet to touch him, his eyes seemed to penetrate mine and lock me into place. I stood frozen under his gaze because this had never happened to me before. No soul sees death before I touch them, before I call out their name. And here this boy was, looking directly into my eyes and then smirking as he read the confusion, dismay and utter disbelief in my being.

I was frozen.

So frozen in fact, that I didn’t feel his aura tap mine, testing the waters. I didn’t feel him until his had already began to swim inside mine. I looked in horror as the edge of my aura was cloaked in purplish black flub. What was I to do- this had never happened before!

So I did the only thing I could think of to do- I pulled his life line forty three years before it was due.

And do you know what I got in return.

No results, because the boy simply blinked at me and reached further into my existence with his evil. I could feel him clawing and ripping inside me and though I never lived, I felt like I was dying.

So I did the only thing I could do when plan a failed.

I ran.

Well, more accurately I just seized being where he was. I went back to the isle, and there I assessed the damage. Not only had the boy tainted me, but he had pulled away my power and sucked it into him as if it were his own.

He now holds the power of Death.